The Voter ID Law That Isn't

Nebraska Senators Punt on Securing Elections

November, 2022. A Millard woman went to her polling place. She saw a long line and a shorter line. When she attempted to join the shorter line she was told: “This line is for people who have been informed they already voted.” This problem has occurred in multiple Nebraska election cycles, yet the state has not been inclined to investigate it.

May 2022. A school board primary race in tiny Elm Creek, Nebraska was close enough to trigger a recount. Officials learned that approximately 10% of the ballots in that town had not been counted on election night. Without a recount, the error would have never come to light. The day after Secretary of State Bob Evnen was notified of the problem, he announced that the primary elections had no glitches whatsoever.

November 2020. A Republican County Chairman received 3 mail-in ballots with his name on them. He had not requested any ballots. His Election Commissioner assured him none of them came from the county. Another couple reported receiving 8 unrequested ballots over a 2 week period. To this day, no election official knows who sent those ballots or why, nor do they seem curious to find out.

Winter 2021. The Nebraska Voter Accuracy Project (NVAP) studied the Nebraska Canvassing Board Report of the 93 counties of Nebraska. That report lists the number of votes from each county. The Jan 6, 2021 voter roll report, which also comes from the counties, lists each person by name that cast a ballot in the 2020 election. When those numbers were aggregated, they found that the State reported 4001 more ballots than the total number of voters. For example, Cass County had more than 800 ballots that were not assigned to a voter. Douglas County had nearly 700. The election was certified without reconciling that discrepancy. To this day, the Nebraska Secretary of State has made no attempt to explain it.

Spring 2021 to present. After the 2020 election which had obvious problems, The Nebraska Voter Accuracy Project used statewide volunteer canvassers who went door to door to find answers.

The volunteers learned that many, many people received multiple unrequested ballots in the mail. Multiples sometimes came to the owner or renter of the dwelling. Some of the names on the ballots were known to the residents, but did not live at their address. Some of the names were completely unknown. Renters received ballots of previous tenants. Homeowners received ballots of previous owners. In most cases, these ballots had not come from the counties. Many people who returned these mail-in ballots later learned their vote was not counted.

Canvassers also found that the 2021 voter rolls contained many “active” voters who did not live at the listed address. This was especially common in apartment buildings, fraternity houses or elder care homes; any dwelling that has high turnover.

Canvassers found a vote from a non-existent address.

Deceased people can remain registered for quite some time, and some received mail- in ballots and/or voted.

Another common theme was 30-something aged voters registered to vote at the address of their childhood home, unbenownst to the voter or the parents who still reside at that address. Due to motor voter laws, many young people register to vote using their parent’s address, then move away or never vote.

Most people are not aware their address and voting record is publicly available. Who you voted for is unknown, but whether you voted using your current address is recorded. If you are a registered voter who rarely votes, there is a fair possibility that a person or machine has cast a ballot in your name. If you are unknowingly still registered somewhere that you used to live, it is child’s play to impersonate you and mail in your ballot. When this is done on a large scale, using computers to locate those “inactive” registered voters, it alters elections. The more bloated and inaccurate the voter rolls, the easier the cheating is to accomplish.

Yes, this all happens in Nebraska.

For the people paying attention, these shenanigans represent an alarming loss of self-determination for our citizens.

The Heritage Foundation has an election security scorecord. Nebraska has a failing grade. Our laws are so lax that it’s simple and risk-free to cheat in our state. See the report HERE.

Even worse, our Secretary of State keeps telling us how perfect everything is. Either he is clueless or he is conning us. Nebraska State Senators will tell you that the pressure to fix these problems has been relentless, yet they have been powerless to act. Until now.

The people, taking matters into their own hands, gathered signatures, put it on the ballot, and overwhelmingly voted for a Constitutional Amendment for Photo Voter ID. It would not solve everything, but it would be a significant step in the right direction. See the law HERE. The amendment states:

“A qualified voter shall present valid photographic identification before casting a ballot.”

That seems pretty clear unless you are a Senator lawyer who opines that if you showed your ID to register to vote when you were 18, that is “before casting a ballot”, so you have met the requirement. Yep, that happened.

Section 3 of the new law defines what constitutes a photo ID.

“Sec. 3.  Valid photographic identification means:

1) A document issued by the United States, the State of Nebraska, an agency or a political subdivision of the State of Nebraska, or a postsecondary institution within the State of Nebraska that:

(a) Shows the name of the individual to whom the document was issued; and

(b) Shows a photograph or digital image of the individual to whom the document was issued;

(2) A document issued by the United States Department of Defense, the United States Department of Veterans Affairs or its predecessor, the Veterans Administration, a branch of the uniformed services as defined in section 85-2902, or a Native American Indian tribe or band recognized by the United States Government that:

(a) Shows the name of the individual to whom the document was issued; and

(b) Shows a photograph or digital image of the individual to whom the document was issued; or

(3) A hospital, an assisted-living facility, a nursing home, or any other skilled care facility record that:

(a) Shows the name of the individual who is the subject of the record; and

(b) Shows a photograph or digital image of the individual who is the subject of the record.”

So far so good.

However, the election bill, finally presented to Senators as the last thing to address before going home, from a working committee led by our Secretary of State, had a whole laundry list of exceptions.

It was a long grueling session. Senators were tired. Not a few of them admitted that they would do anything to avoid a special session. They should have waited. A delayed decision is better than a bad one. Yet, they persisted, and here is the result:

The Voter ID language was tacked onto a pre-existing election statute. There are some exceptions to the rule of providing ID that are arguably necessary, particularly the exception for active military. Also this:

“Sec. 11. (1) The Secretary of State shall provide a standard certification for a voter with a reasonable impediment preventing the voter from presenting valid photographic identification. The certification shall include the following as separate boxes that a voter may check to identify the applicable reasonable impediment:

(a) Inability to obtain valid photographic identification due to:

(i) Disability or illness; or

(ii) Lack of a birth certificate or other required documents; or

(b) Religious objection to being photographed.”

Here is the glaringly obvious problem. If you don’t want to use a photo ID, Section 7 says you don’t need to. Instead, you can use:

“a copy of a utility bill, bank statement, paycheck, government check, or other government document which is current at the time of the election and which shows the same name and residence address of the voter that is on the precinct list of registered voters.”

Please someone explain how “a copy of a utility bill or bank statement” comports with Section 3. It is not a photo ID, it is not issued by the US or State Government, by a hospital or nursing home, or by a post secondary institution. An eight-year-old could forge it on their home printer.

This little paragraph, which most likely became law before computers were invented, was not removed from the revised statute. It effectively negates the entire photo ID requirement. Yes, Senator Julie Slama made sure that everyone was aware of the loopholes. Her attempts to tighten the language were voted down. Our Senators knew they were passing a weak bill, and the Governor signed it. You can see how they voted HERE.

The battle for election integrity has become a fight between whose experts are correct and whose experts are “de-bunked.” Maybe you don’t agree with NVAP or the Heritage Foundation. The point is we should not need experts to explain tallies on a scorecard. Voting does not have to be complicated. It should not be necessary to have dueling data-analysts and cyber-specialists to decipher a ballot count. This is the real problem with our current election system. It is impossible for regular people to check the work.

It has become abunduntly clear, however, that our elected leaders prefer their elections to be messy and unaccountable, rather than clean and transparent. As a result:

Nebraska has Voter ID on the honor system.

Make sure your Senator knows this dog won’t hunt in your district.

-by Sue Greenwald, M.D. with assistance from Nebraska Voter Accuracy Project